Darth Maul: Deception
by CrazyPyroMan
Summary: Set in 47 BBY. Darth Maul and a young Jedi Knight both go checking up on the TF...
1. Negotiations

**DISCLAMER:** I don't own Star Wars, or any related characters, etc.

**A.N.** Ok so this is my first fanfic so don't expect it to be very good. I know the Darth Maul isn't actually in this first chapter, but I have to get the story going first, he should appear in the second chapter!

In the dark depths of Coruscant, which saw little or no sunlight, there was an abrupt disturbance in the force.

Jedi Knight Inhered Arios awoke suddenly; he sat up in his bed and looked around his small but comfortable quarters in the Jedi Temple. He had seen something in his sleep, a dream, or maybe a vision of the future, he couldn't be sure, but he knew this dream was caused by the force in some way or another.

He got out of bed and got dressed, he was going to see Master Yoda, this dream had disturbed him and he thought it was necessary to inform the

Council of what he had seen, just in case.

The Council Chamber was occupied by eleven of the twelve members of the High

Council, only Mace Windu was absent.

Yoda, the small green alien and head of the Council, was about eight hundred years old and was probably the most famous and wise Jedi ever. And here in the Chamber he proved his wisdom again.

"A dream you come to tell us of, yes?"

"Yes Master," Arios replied. "I felt a disturbance in the force and I saw a hooded humanoid stalking in the depths of the city, it didn't feel right, and I thought it might be important so I came straight here when I woke."

"Interesting and disturbing this is, thank you Inhered, discuss and meditate on this we will."

"Thank you Master Yoda"

As he left the Council Chamber he heard the Council begin their discussions and knew that the issue would be seen to, no matter how trivial it turned out to be.

Far on the other side of Coruscant, a Trade Federation cruiser was approaching the planet.

On the bridge of the massive ship, two cowardly Neimoidians stood in front of a large view screen. Suddenly an image of a face appeared, it was the Senator Palpatine from Naboo.

"We are on schedule senator, we will be arriving soon," stated one of the Neimoidian representatives.

"Good, I hope for no more delays."

"There will be none"

The screen faded away and the other representative ordered the pilot to put the ship in a high polar orbit.

In the huge hanger bay, thousands of federation battle droids were being loaded into landing craft. The elevator door opened and the two diplomats came out and head for a smaller craft, which was being refuelled by some maintenance droids. This ship was obviously not of the same make as the other huge landing craft in the bay. The Neimoidians boarded the craft and ordered the droid pilot to take them to the surface, no coordinates were given but the droid seemed to know where it was going and there was only a small response of compliance, and the ship took off. There was little conversation on the way down to the surface, mainly due to the high nervous tension in the passenger compartment.

The small craft landed in an industrial zone, in the planet's northern polar region. The two beings emerged down the ramp, into an abandoned warehouse, to be met by Senator Palpatine and a guard.

"Ah," began Palpatine, "follow me friends, to a more private location."

The Neimoidians silently followed the senator into a small office, where he took a seat behind a small desk.

"Sit, please."

They looked cautiously at each other and sat down.

"So why are we here?" asked the first Neimoidian.

"You are here because you are to deliver my cargo, safely, to your Viceroy

Nute Gunray."

"Why all the secrecy then?"

"The nature of the cargo is very sensitive information, and under no circumstances are you to open the cargo, it should remain under guard at all times, do you understand?"

"We understand."

"Good, now go, the cargo is being loaded onto your ship as we speak."

Palpatine turned his chair to look out the window, and the two Neimoidians rose and left the room. Heading back to the ship the second Neimoidian said,

"I don't trust him, and I don't know why the viceroy does either, we have never negotiated with the Naboo before."

"I agree," answers the other, "but if we complete this assignment successfully, the viceroy might make clear to us the reasoning behind it all."

They got back to the ship and took off. On the way back to the cruiser they opened a comm. link to the bridge and told the pilot to prepare the ship for hyperspace.

A.N. i am working on the second chapter so check back soon. oh and please R&R!


	2. The Mission

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, ok? So don't sue!_

**Chapter 2**

Darth Maul was just returning to his ship when a beep sounded from his wrist-pad. He looked down to see what the reason for the beep was. He accelerated his customized swoop-bike to its top speed and was at the location of the ship in seconds. He used a remote to uncloak it and to extend the ramp.

The bike came to a stop just inches from the back wall of the cargo bay, but by this time Maul was nowhere to be seen.

Maul bowed in front of the holo-projector on the bridge of the Scimitar and activated the controls with the Force. A hooded figure appeared.

"I have a new mission for you, my young apprentice."

"Yes Master, what is your bidding?"

"The Neimoidians are transporting some _cargo_ for me; I want you to keep an eye on it."

"It will be done Master."

But before Maul had finished, the holo-image of his Master was gone.

He stood up, about to prepare the ship for departure when a console on the left hand side of the bridge beeped, but he continued to prepare the ship. This only took about ten standard minuets.

When he was finished he set the auto-pilot for take-off, and programmed it to park the ship in geo-synchronous orbit over the north magnetic pole- this would mask the ship from a bounty hunter Maul knew was following, without wasting power with the cloak.

Once the auto pilot was set, he sat down at the console which had beeped. He had received three data files on his new mission.

"Play files zero-zero-nine, zero-one-zero, and zero-one-one, in my quarters. Play speed times five, and repeat," he commanded the voice controlled computer, after a quick scan through the files.

He set the auto-pilot to intercept the Neimoidian ship, then went to his quarters

Maul enjoyed meditating (well, as much as a Sith Lord can enjoy anything). It made him feel closer to the Force. He meditated now, as his ship sped towards Coruscant, and he would meditate for the whole journey, letting the audio files enter his highly developed brain and be analyzed, much quicker and more efficiently than if he were to study them manually. By the time he reached his target he would know everything about them, possibly, even more than they even knew about themselves!

_**A/N **_

_**Sorry for the short chapter but I needed to introduce the main character.**_

_**I would like to thank MistyRiver and Sweetdeath04 for helping me get things right! R&R please!**_

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	3. Bounty

_Disclaimer: I own nothing; if I did I wouldn't be writhing fanfics, ok?_

**Chapter 3**

"I'm starting to regret taking this bounty," Jango said to himself as he left Port Pixelito, on Malastare.

He had followed his quarry half way around Malastare and was now getting close to catching it, or so he thought, as he activated his ship's sensor mask.

Using the military class sensors on his Firespray-Class ship, he probed the space surrounding the planet trying to find where his prey was hiding, because there was no way _that _ship was ready for hyperspace in such a short time.

He had seen the enemy's ship while it was on the ground- it looked custom built, but it had no weapons and it didn't have a fast enough computer to make any hyperspace calculations in the short time it had been off the ground.

Although his target seemed to have no weapons, he was still challenging. He was highly skilled in the art of running and hiding.

Because of his bounty's stealthy nature, Fett was taking no chances. His sensors told him that the ship he was looking for was not in orbit, but Jango decided to take a few quick runs around the planet and its moon to look for the ship- _with his eyes_.

After two orbits of the planet, Jango was about to set course for the far side of the moon, when he saw it. The small, black ship was above the northern polar region of the planet, just sitting there.

"Damn, he's smart," Jango muttered.

"He won't even see me coming- poor sucker," he laughed to himself as he approached the other ship.

Just as his weapon got a lock on the ship it started to move. It was heading for the moon!

"How did he see me?!" he shouted, checking the sensor mask.

He set off in pursuit of the small craft as it sped towards the moon. What Fett didn't know, was that the ship was on auto pilot and he _hadn't_ been seen.

As he steered his ship round the moon, he was surprised when he did _not_ see his target. He accelerated to top speed (which was higher than his targets, according to his sensors), went the whole way around the moon, just in case it had gone round again, and he also probed the surface of the giant rock.

The ship was not on the moon and there was nowhere else to hide. The surface of the moon was normal rock so it did not interfere with the sensors, and the moon had little, or no, magnetic field.

"No way has it gone into hyperspace that quickly," he was thinking to himself, when his sensors picked up something.

It was a trail of charged particles, exactly the type emitted by his prey's sub-light engines, but the trail just stopped. The only explanation for this was that the ship had gone into hyperspace.

He didn't think that it was possible, but it had to be. He set the computer to calculate the most likely trajectory of the ship from its last known position and heading.

He **_would_** catch this Maul person, whoever he was!

"No one out-smarts Jango Fett" he said as his ship made the jump to hyperspace; they were heading for Bestine, where he _would_ get his bounty!

**A/N** Now that I have introduced the main characters, the story should start to take shape so bare with me.

this chapter is for **Sweatdeath04** 'cause she loves Jango!


	4. Much to Discuss

**Disclaimer: I don't own any star wars related items, characters or ideas, except my own, I do however own Inhered Arios (and I did in the first chapter too, I just forgot to mention it), and you can't have him!**

There were only six Delta-7 Jedi Star Fighters in the temple hanger in the High Council Tower of the temple, when Inhered arrived there. He found one the attendants had prepared (by order of the council) for his short journey to Cato Neimoidia.

He was going to Cato Neimoidia to attend talks on free trade zones and route agreements. He was to meet Mace Windu there and they would attend together.

He got into the small ship and let the astro-mech droid take him out of the atmosphere.

When the ship broke atmosphere, Inhered took the controls and slowly guided the small, triangular ship into one of the many orbiting hyperdrive rings.

Each ring had two hyperdrive engines which could propel the small ships faster than the speed of light, making interstellar journeys a lot more practical than the old sublight starships, which took many generations to get to their destination.

This journey would not take that long as Cato Neimoidia was quite close to Coruscant, on the Galactic Scale, around eight thousand light years.

When the automatic mechanisms locked the ship and the ring together, the ship, which had the hyperspace co-ordinates pre-programmed, flashed away into hyperspace.

Hyperspace travel brought the galaxy together after its invention 25,000 years ago. It took advantage of the fact that space was not flat, but has many, uncountable folds. Travelling in the regions between the folds in hyperspace made journeys shorter, thus giving the impression of faster than light travel. Although the ship may reach its destination before light from the same point and time, it still was travelling at speeds below the speed of light. This is because the light is travelling in real space rather than hyperspace, and therefore has a very much longer distance to travel. On average, travelling in hyperspace gives the impression of travelling at nine million times the speed of light, which means one can travel the length of the galaxy in less than a standard week.

Inhered was glad when the nav-computer told him that they would arrive in thirty minutes. He was getting sore (I think you know where) after the seven hour journey and it would be a relief to get up and walk about to stretch his legs.

There was a slight vibration as the Delta-7 shifted into real space. Inhered saw the green planet, but he wasn't landing yet. Suddenly, the comm opened and he heard a familiar voice through his earpiece.

"Good to see you, Inhered. We were not expecting you for another couple of hours."

"Good to see you to, Master Windu," he replied. "Where is your ship? I don't see it."

"We will send you the co-ordinates now…" There was a pause, then a beep, "… There, see you soon."

"Right, Arios out."

He set a course for Mace Windu's ship, which had landed on an uninhabitable asteroid near the planet.

He landed in the hanger bay of the large Republic Cruiser. There was only enough room in the small hanger bay for two small ships, and there was already an old looking shuttle parked there, which made landing a little harder, but he, with a little help from the Force, managed it. Once landed he headed for the meeting room at the front of the ship.

He entered the meeting room to see Master Windu standing, looking out a view port at the rugged terrain. When the door hissed closed behind him the Master Jedi turned to face him.

"Sit down," Mace said pointing to a chair at the table. "We have much to discuss."


	5. Sounds Serious

**_Disclaimer: I wish I owned Star Wars, but I Don't! (I do own Inhered Arios btw)_**

"Sit down, we have much to discuss."

Inhered sat on the comfortable chair designed to increase the concentration of the user. It was at a large circular conference table which had holo-recorders built into it, in front of each chair so they could have holo-conferences. Inhered assumed that there were holo-projectors aimed at the chairs as well, but he couldn't see them.

"I sense that this isn't about the negotiations, is it?" he said.

"No," replied Mace, as he walked to a console and pressed a button, "it isn't."

When he pressed the button the holographic forms of the eleven other members of the Jedi Council appeared in the remaining chairs. Inhered jumped to his feet and bowed to them.

"Sit down, you should, Knight Arios," said the familiar voice of Master Yoda.

"Yes, Master," he said softly, and slowly sat down; it was not every day a Knight was asked to _sit_ with the Council; this definitely wasn't about the upcoming negotiations, this sounded serious.

Once everyone was seated, Master Yoda started, "Going well, are the negotiations, Master Windu?"

"So far the leaders of The Trade Federation, The Intergalactic Banking Clan and The Techno Union, are against the taxation of trade routes and the Naboo, the Corellians and the Bith, are in favor of the taxes. The other factions represented here are still undecided," reported Mace.

"Continue, you will, to attend these talks," replied Yoda. "Now, something to report, Master Gallia has."

"Thank you Master Yoda," she began, "recent orbital logs show that a Trade Federation Cruiser entered orbit, unscheduled, and left again in a couple of hours. This sort of unusual behavior by the Federation has been increasing over the last few months and we are opening an investigation to look into it."

"Indeed, the Federation cruiser, only a couple of hours, stayed in orbit, in orbit over a region in the northern industrial sector, it did."

"Master Yoda, I will go to the industrial sector to see if we can find a reason for this unusual behavior," Jedi Master Koth offered.

"Very good Master Koth. The location below the orbit, you should start."

Then Jedi Master Plo Koon suggested that someone should be sent to question the Federation representatives on the ship.

"Our intelligence tells us that the cruiser was one of Viceroy Gunray's Fleet, but not the flagship. We also know, from the ships last known course, that in is most likely heading to you, Master Windu, at Cato Neimoidia." Master Gallia put forward.

Master Tiin then said, "If the cruiser is heading to Cato Neimoidia, then we should send you, Inhered, to intercept it, and to find out what it is they are up to."

"If up to something, they are."

"Yes, I agree with Master Tiin. Inhered should go to them when they arrive," said Mace. "He can refuel here, on my ship, and get on his way. I will record the talks and we can go over them back at the temple."

Inhered was supposed to see the talks as a training exercise in diplomacy, but this mission was more important and Mace was going to go over the talks with him anyway. He nodded in agreement with the council, "It shouldn't take to long, _if_ they are honest."

"Good then, to the north, Master Koth will go, and to the Federation, Inhered will go. That is that settled, all then. No more to discuss, I think." Master Yoda finished, "May the Force be with us all."

"May the Force be with us," the other twelve attendees repeated in unison.

Mace went to the console and pressed the same button as he had earlier- the Holograms faded away.

Mace and Inhered went to the hanger bay to get the ship ready before Inhered retired to the quarters Mace had prepared for him and got some well appreciated sleep. Traveling tired Inhered- and then talking to the Council as well, without a rest, had taken it out of the young Jedi. He would rise refreshed and ready for more traveling.

**A/N: sorry this took so long, there is less of Mace Windu in this chapter than I had originally planed (you will know what I am talking about if you had read my profile a week ago.)**


	6. Questioning

**Disclaimer: I never have, and never will own Star Wars.**

An alarm went off in the cockpit of the Republic cruiser; the sensors had picked up a ship coming into the system. Mace went to the console.

"It's the cruiser you're waiting for," he said to Inhered.

"Right, I'll get ready to go. It might not stay long; ships have been arriving and leaving since I got here. I don't want to miss it." He spoke in a cheery way- he was looking forward to this mission. Despite the fact that it was very short notice and he had not had long to prepare, it was more exciting than trade agreements.

He walked the corridors to the hanger as fast as he could without making it look like he was too excited, because that wasn't very _Jedi_. His ship had been ready for several hours now, so he only had the pre-flight checks to do. This didn't take long for a trained Jedi pilot and he was soon on his way. Getting out was a lot easier than getting into the cramped hanger.

As soon as he was clear of the asteroids he switched on the heads-up-display and got a long range sensor lock on the cruiser. The fighter's sensors had been modified by Jedi engineers so as not to set off any alarms on ships they were scanning- most large ships had scan alert systems and the Jedi liked to be discrete.

As he approached the cruiser at a 'casual' speed, he watched as a supply ship entered the main bay of the huge ship. He knew he hadn't long before it would be refueled and ready to jump again, so he sped up. As soon as he was within weapons range of the cruiser a red warning light flashed. They had a weapons lock on his ship. Not more than a second later the blue comm light flashed. He had known that he would not have to contact them because the Federation was paranoid enough to do that for him. He grinned and pushed the blue light.

"Who are you, and why are you flying towards our ship?" a slimy voice filtered through the speaker. "We don't pick up hitchhikers!"

"Deactivate your weapons and lower your shields," Inhered started. "This is Inhered Arios of the Jedi and Ambassador to the Chancellor, and I am coming aboard." He knew not to give away to much information in case they decided to run. He was too far from his hyperdrive ring to follow.

"We are_ so_ _sorry; _how could we deny an ambassador?" said the slimy voice of the Neimoidian. "You may land immediately."

The red alarm light went out and he made his way in. As he got closer he was contacted by a technician on the cruiser and was told to land, not in the main hanger, but in Hanger Twenty Four. It was odd for them to send an ambassador to a minor hanger, but he sensed nothing. There must have been a good reason for it.

When he entered the hanger there was a group of Neimoidians standing together discussing something. He landed and got out his small ship. As he did so, the group of Neimoidians slowly made their way over to great him.

"Greetings, Jedi," said the first one, "The captain sends his apologies that he can't be here to greet you himself as he has _other_ thing to attend to. He is a very busy man."

Inhered was laughing inside his head. How could anyone call a Neimoidian a _'man'_?

"I understand that he has many things to do, he has a hard job, and I thank you for the warm welcome," he replied in a slightly sarcastic tone, which the aliens didn't pick up on. "If only it were under better circumstances. I am here to enquire about your recent visit to Coruscant."

"You will need to take that up with the captain."

"That is fine with me. Where will I find him?"

"He is busy, I can send you to a conference room to wait."

"Will he be long?"

"Shouldn't be."

"Fine then, I will wait."

A droid took him down a few long corridors to the aforementioned room. There was a large transparasteel window at the end of the room and Inhered stood at it and looked out. He waited for about twenty standard minuets and was about to go and find someone when the door opened.

"Sorry for keeping you."

"That's ok. I want to ask you about your recent visit to Coruscant. What was your reason for it?"

The Neimoidian started to sweat a bit- well, a bit more than normal. Neimoidians were always moist.

"Umm… we were there on business… for the Viceroy…umm…" He trailed off and Inhered picked up the thread.

"What business?" asked Inhered. "Did you know it was illegal to enter the orbit of Coruscant unscheduled?"

"Umm… yes but, umm… it was, umm… important, yes important." The Neimoidian was getting quite nervous now. How would he deliver the crate to the Viceroy if he got arrested for a small crime like this?

"What is it that is so important that you have to break the law?" Inhered continued, taking note of the increasing nervousness of the Neimoidian. He was hiding something and Inhered wasn't going to leave before he unveiled the truth.

"I, umm… can't tell you. It's, umm… classified."

"Well then, you will have to take me to the Viceroy. Is he on the planet?"

"No, we are just here to refuel. He is on Bestine."

"Then I will come with you to Bestine, just after I contact the Jedi Council."

"I'm not sure if we… well actually, yes ok."

When they finished the exchange of words, Inhered went back to the hanger and to his ship, where he opened a comm channel to Mace's ship. He informed him of how the mission was going and that the Federation was obviously hiding something, as always. Mace approved his next move and they closed the channel.

**A/N – Wow that's the most I've ever written, lol. Hope you all are enjoying it, keep checking for updates, chapter 7 should be on its way soon. **

**Oh and one more thing… please review**


	7. Not Today

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darth Maul, Jango Fett, or anything to do with Star Wars.**

**A/N – Ok so if you can remember back to chapter 3 (The Bounty), Jango had just followed Darth Maul into hyperspace heading for Bestine…**

Maul brought his ship out of hyperspace as close to the planet as possible. He did as last time and headed for the north magnetic pole to hide his ship. This time he cloaked so that the bounty hunter, whom his sensors had identified as Jango Fett, would not get so lucky.

He knew about Fett. He knew that he was the best. He knew that he was the smartest. He knew that he was the deadliest. But none of this mattered, he was not going to be a problem, just an annoyance- and he wouldn't even be that for long. He already knew how he was going to get rid of him.

During the journey to Bestine he had been meditating on his new mission which was quite simple. He hated these simple missions, they were not testing enough of his abilities, but he didn't let this fact make him complacent because he knew that if he did he _could_ fail the mission- and the consequences of this would be unimaginable.

The mission was to make sure that his Master's shipment got to Viceroy Gunray safely and to make sure that only the Viceroy knew what was in the crate. This alone shouldn't be too hard, but he sensed something about this mission which would make it a little bit more interesting, he sensed deception surrounding the mission. His Master must have sensed it too or he wouldn't be here.

Maul sensed a slight ripple in the Force- Fett was in the system. That was fast, he is better than they say, thought Maul, as he moved from the flight controls to the sensor screens. He knew he had a little time before the Trade Federation cruiser arrived, so he would distract Fett until they got there.

His ship, the_Scimitar_, was armed with six hidden blasters and an array of precautionary measures like the cloaking device and the sensor masks. He took pride in his ship as most of it was custom built by himself, but he didn't want to let anyone know what weapons he had. If he did he would be classed as a bounty hunter and he didn't want that for two reasons, first of all everyone would recognize his ship and know what weapons it had because it would be all over the holonet and secondly, he wasn't a bounty hunter.

He checked the sensors and waited until Fett's ship was facing the other way, then he fired one shot just past its port thruster. He then quickly maneuvered his ship into a polar orbit so that he was never where the shot came from. This technique, he found, could keep most mercenaries occupied for at least an hour, though he didn't expect Fett to be fooled that long.

As he expected Fett's ship spun around, and fired in the direction the shot came from. Maul was impressed with Jango's accuracy- if he hadn't moved he would be in a million pieces. This was a good thing; it let Maul know how good the sensors were on _Slave 1_.

He did this a few more times with the same result, before Fett fired first; he had anticipated the position of the ship he was pursuing. One of his lasers deflected and when Fett looked there seemed to be nothing there. He checked the sensor logs and there was a flash when the laser bolt hit the cloaked ship as the ship flashed into view for less than a second.

Alarms went off in Jango's head. Oh no he has a cloaking device, how will I get him now and how will I not get killed myself. Then alarms started to go off in the ship, this day was just getting better and better. He checked the screen to see a Trade Federation Cruiser heading for the planet. He looked again, yes he had seen it, Maul's ship was uncloaked. He must have done more damage than Jango thought, and although he still couldn't get a lock on the ship, at least he could see it.

This guy is as crazy as a Dug, thought Jango as he watched Maul's ship speed towards the huge cruiser. What was he doing? Using his magnetic docking clamps he attached the ship to the side of the cruiser. Jango took back his previous thought; this guy was crazier than a Dug.

Jango decided to take the shot; he could take out Maul with one good hit. He took manual control of the weapons and took aim. He would disable Maul's ship, contact the cruiser to apologize and explain and then he would tow Maul's ship back to Coruscant and collect his payment.

The tactical officer on the cruiser was going over his schedule when his sensors picked up a faint weapons signature, he checked it. Someone was charging weapons pointed at the cruiser, a small patrol ship. He pressed a button and went back to his schedule.

As soon as Jango had aimed the shot, he fired. At the exact same time a green bolt from ion cannon came from the cruiser. He had not expected that, surely their scanners could detect the ship attached to their hull? As the green bolt hit his ship he noticed that his red laser bolts had hit the durasteel hull of the cruiser.

"WHAT!" he shouted. Where was Maul's ship? It had been right there!

_Slave 1_ spun out of control. It had lost all power, all it could do was drift and he was heading for interstellar space. It could be days before anyone found him out there, just drifting. There was nothing he could do, he checked the supplies and went to the engine room to see if there was anyway to get power back.

Once clamped to the hull of the cruiser, Darth Maul set the cloaking device to come on as soon as the sensors detected a shot from Fett's ship. As he sat in the pilot's chair he watched the yellow light labeled 'cloak.' As soon as it was lit he took off, pushing the ship forwards with full thrusters and a little help from the Force.

"You were nearly a worthy opponent Jango Fett, but not today," he said to himself.

He now headed for the communications dish of the cruiser. This was the cruiser he was to keep his eye on. He didn't care what happened to Fett, he knew the Federation would probably disable, if not destroy, his ship so he would no longer an _annoyance_.

He docked on the communications dish of the cruiser where he could intercept all transmissions. He also remained cloaked, so not to be detected- he would not fail this mission.

**A/N – thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this, not my best chapter but I needed to get Maul onto the cruiser and I though this would be a fun way to do it, lol. R&R**


	8. Captive

**Disclaimer: OK so I don't own Star Wars, I think you get that by now.**

**A/N – thanks to all you who are reading this, this is a very short chapter but I hope you like it. R&R!!**

Inhered was led though the maze of corridors to a small room where he was instructed to stay for the whole journey.

"What about food?" he asked the security droid.

"Eh, meals will be arranged and delivered," it replied in a metallic voice.

The droid, which looked like a skeleton, turned and left, saying something into its communicator that Inhered could not make out but what sounded like, "Prisoner secure." He hoped that this was not what it had said; he didn't want the mission to become more complicated than it already was.

When the door whooshed shut after the droid, Inhered had a look around the small room, which was unnervingly like a prison cell. He tested the door and found it was locked- this was not looking good- then he thought of something.

He went over to the bed and rummaged in his pack. He found what he was looking for, his data pad. He took it out of its leather pouch and switched it on and after passing all the security locks on it, he placed it on the bed. He went over to the panel by the door and carefully removed the front of it with his knife, revealing the circuitry.

He picked up the data pad and using the knife again, he removed the back of it. He fingered through the wires in the wall and selected a yellow one and a green one and cut them. He then pushed the two wires under a chip on the circuit of the pad and screwed the back into place again.

He turned it over and the screen flickered, he now had access to the ships computer, but he knew he would need to find some alternate routes to find the information he was looking for. He wanted to know what was so important about the cargo this ship held in the vault.

He sensed something. Something moving but not organic, he set the data pad in the hole and quickly put the panel back on, just in time as a droid came in the door with a tray of what he thought was supposed to be food. The silver protocol droid set the food on the small table and left without saying anything. This was odd, he though, for a protocol droid, they were normally very friendly and talkative. The lack of speech from the droid reinforced his worries that he was being held as a prisoner. Now he had more things to do- find out what the ship was carrying and try to figure a way out of here.

He ate the food, which was unpleasant but edible, and went about looking through the ships computer.

When he finally found the cargo bay logs they needed alpha level security clearance, which he didn't have, but what he did have was a program on the data pad which could get past the encryption, however it would take some time, so he set it working and went over to the bed and sat down.

He crossed his legs and closed his eyes. He would use the time to work out the escape plan he would most likely need.


	9. Check up

Darth Maul watched the screen intently. He was watching someone hack into the entire Trade Federation computer system. It was so fast a hack that he knew that this could only mean one thing- it was what he had been training for all his life; there was a Jedi onboard the ship. He would have to _dispose_ of him before he (if he hasn't already) compromised the mission.

He had sensed something about this mission from the beginning but he didn't know what exactly it was he had sensed, now he knew why, the Jedi were skilled at hiding there presence.

He shut down the Jedi's hack, hoping he had not uncovered any information about his master. He knew that the Neimoidians would have something about him in the computer as they had done business and they were not the most trustworthy race in the galaxy.

He powered up the_ Scimitar,_ positioning it a few thousand meters from the cruiser he deactivated the cloak. He moved the ship slowly closer to the cruiser and transmitted an automated message to it.

On the bridge of the cruiser the message was played on the view screen.

"Allow this ship to land, he is my apprentice and has been sent by me to check on the cargo."

The image wore a dark hood which covered his face but the Neimoidians knew that voice. It was the voice of Darth Sidious.

"Open the blast doors, quickly. We dare not defy Lord Sidious!" shouted the captain. (**A/N – yes I am aware that I never gave any of the Neimoidians names.**)

The huge doors of the main hanger bay opened with amazing speed and Maul landed his ship right in the middle of the large room. He shut down the ship and walked down the ramp to meet the same slimy Neimoidians which his master had dealt with a few days ago.

"Welcome, we hope you find everything to you satisfaction," said the captain.

"This droid will take you to the cargo immediately," said the second Neimoidian.

Darth Maul followed the droid through the ship to one of the ship's cargo holds. This one had only one thing in it, the crate they were delivering to Nute Gunray. He checked the crate's internal sensors. Everything seemed fine from here. He then closed his eyes and let himself be consumed by the Force. He followed the wispy tentacles of the Force through the crate's durasteel exterior. The Force welled up, boxed inside the crate- the Sith Apprentice could get lost in the strength within the Force that the content of the crate possessed. Maul opened his eyes, the package was fine. Now to check out the Jedi problem.

The droid led him to the bridge. The captain hurried over to him.

"Is everything…um, ok?"

"I have found the package to be…adequately safe. However that is not the only reason I am here. Have the crate taken to the main hanger bay and left with my ship."

"But the Viceroy is expecting it later today!" the captain exclaimed.

"And the Viceroy will get it later today; I will take it to him." Maul reassured him, "Now I have one more thing to attend to before I leave."

"And that is?"

"There is a Jedi onboard, bring _it_ to me!"

"I was not aware of thi…"

The captain did not get to finish the sentence because he was dead, slain by the blood red blade of Darth Maul's lightsaber.

"Bring _it_ to me now!"

"Yes…um, immediately… um, Sir," stuttered the second Neimoidian. This was the first thing he would do in his new position of Captain.

**A/N – hope you liked this chapter, finally we have some killing, just what Maul is good at. Don't forget to review.**


	10. Revelation

The data pad on the wall beeped twice to tell Inhered that the security program had been bypassed. Just as he stood up to find out what was so important to the Viceroy, the door slid open with a hiss.

He could not tell if it was the same droid that had brought him to the small room because they all looked the same to him.

"Come with me please," it said in the usual metallic drone.

"Am I going to see the Viceroy?"

"The Captain wishes to see you."

He glanced at the data pad hanging out of the hole in the wall, hoping that the droid wouldn't see it; he wished he could have seen what was in the cargo bay, but maybe he would be back if the Viceroy wasn't here yet.

The droid walked out the door without seeing the data pad and Inhered sighed to himself quietly and followed. Outside the door, there were two more droids waiting, which followed behind with Inhered in the middle.

When they reached the conference room Inhered sensed a void in the force- it was like nothing he had felt before. When the door opened they went in and suddenly he knew what was going to happen.

Darth Maul stepped out of the shadows and scanned the Jedi with his eyes. He was slightly disappointed that he was not going to be challenged today; this Jedi would be easy to kill.

Inhered's hand moved to his lightsaber. He didn't ignite it straight away because he thought the mysterious being would say something first. That was his first mistake because before he knew what was happening the hooded individual had thrown his cloak to the ground and had ignited the blood red blade of his lightsaber.

Inhered jumped to the side as Maul lunged at him, quickly drawing his own lightsaber and swinging it at Maul while his back was turned. But Maul was too fast- their blades clashed and Maul threw Inhered back against the wall. As Inhered got up he saw how Maul could put so much force behind his blows, the hilt of his lightsaber was twice the normal length allowing Maul a much better grip.

Inhered wanted to get into the corridor where he would have more room to move. He started towards the door, hitting the controls with the Force. The door whooshed open but again, Maul was in his way. He took another swing at Maul, this time aiming for the hilt of his lightsaber but, suddenly, there was another blade extended from the opposite end of the hilt, allowing Maul to block Inhered's attack

As Inhered was deflecting it, Maul swung the other blade around to catch him off guard but Inhered blocked it and took the opportunity to jump for the door. With the help of the Force, he somersaulted over Maul, swinging again at his back only to be blocked by the second blade. Inhered ran back a bit- finally he was in the corridor, but he had no time to congratulate himself as Maul was already in the corridor too. It was only now that Inhered realised, seeing the two blades fully extended, how difficult this was going to be.


	11. The Duel

**A/N – Thanks to all who have reviewed (although it seems to be mostly Sweetdeath04…10 of 13!). I hope you all enjoyed the start of the duel, and now it continues…**

Darth Maul spun his lightsaber in a blur of red, so fast that Inhered could barely make out the man behind it. He thrust his own blade into the spinning blur and swung down again to stop Maul's second blade from amputating his legs, but again, without time to attack, he had to lift his blade to block yet another blow.

_Wow! Who is this guy, and how can he move so fast? I've only ever seen Master Yoda move faster. _

He backed down the corridor pursued by Maul blocking and dodging the constant blows from the amazing weapon he had never seen the likes of before. He had no idea where the corridor led but he hoped he would get a chance to attack before he found out.

As they fought down the corridor, Inhered saw five security droids coming from where they had just been. Yes, he thought, this was his chance to attack. When the droids began their attack, it would be the stranger who would get caught in the blaster fire.

When the droids got a bit closer they raised the blasters which they were carrying and started to shoot down the corridor. No sooner than they had started, Maul was on them. Inhered was so stunned at how fast he had jumped back and decimated the droids, that he didn't get the time to attack as he had planned and now, like at the start of their battle, there was a space between them and like before, the space got very small, very fast.

Inhered had, so far, been able to hold off the attack, but he was beginning to tire and he didn't think that he could keep this up for much longer. They turned a corner and went through another doorway. Somehow, without realizing it, they had made their way to the hanger where Inhered's ship was. Another chance, he thought, as he headed for his ship.

Suddenly, Maul broke off the relentless attack and stepped back, his plan had worked, they were now in the hanger and the Jedi was heading to his ship. This Jedi was a good fighter, he thought, but he would have no chance when they got into space.

Inhered didn't stop to think why the man, who could only be a Sith, had stopped the attack. He just turned and ran to his ship. There were no other ships in the hanger except droid starfighters, which had no space for a pilot, and maintenance ships, which had no weapons. The Sith could not, or would not, follow him.

As he quickly closed the hatch, a haze appeared in front of his ship and within a second of the haze appearing it had changed into a ship. It must have been cloaked, Inhered thought, but he started the engines and took off quickly. On the way out of the hanger he scanned the ship which had appeared and found it to be lacking in any serious weapons and it had little or no shields. This would be easy.

**A/N – Sorry for the duel not being as long as you (and I) would have liked it but they are actually quite hard to write. Any tips on writing fights would be appreciated- PM me.**


	12. Schimitar Attack

As Inhered cleared the hanger doors, the blue expanse of Bestine came into view. The planet's surface was his only chance to escape in order to tell the council of his discovery. He needed to find transport to Coruscant before the Sith could catch him, so he set a course for the nearest spaceport and put full power to the engines.

Just as the autopilot engaged, Inhered shut it off again, pulling the ship into a steep climb away from the planet not a second too late, as two red streaks of light shot past, where his ship had been only a moment before. He pulled the small ship around to look for his attacker, but found nothing except for the cruiser he had just left, but his sensors told him that the shots had definitely not come from it. Then it hit him- the cloaked ship. Somehow his sensors had not picked up the weapons it carried. The Sith must have cloaked again, just after he had fired.

_There is no way that ship is more manoeuvrable than this, _Inhered thought. _It was at least three times as big, so I will just wait for him to uncloak again and then see if I can disable that cloaking device._

He pointed his ship in the general direction that the shots had come from and waited.

Maul looked at the sensor readout, yes, just as he'd predicted, the Jedi was waiting for him to uncloak again. He moved his ship into an attacking position below the Jedi's small ship, but just as he was about to uncloak and fire, the Jedi's ship started to rotate quickly towards the_ Scimitar_.

Instead of firing from where he was positioned, Maul engaged the forward thrusters and when the distance between them had been reduced to a half, he uncloaked and fired a few shots from two of his hidden cannons.

The Jedi's reactions were very good, only one of the shots made contact, skimming the underside of the ship, and straight away the Jedi was back on course sending a volley of blue laser bolts across the nose of the _Scimitar_.

Maul quickly set the two cannons he has just used to register as damaged if scanned, and decided to leave the ship uncloaked for now to let the Jedi think he had done some damage. He then pushed the throttle lever forward and sped past the Jedi. He could see on the readouts that the Delta-7 was coming about for another shot, so he cut the engines and engaged his manoeuvring thrusters at full power, spinning his ship around to face the Jedi.

He was now in a position to shoot the Jedi scum from space whilst still moving at a good speed away from him. He locked on all six of his cannons at full power (enough to vaporise the small ship) and prepared to fire. The Jedi still thought he had no weapons but that was about to change.

Inhered pulled the ship around, in as tight an arc as the ship would allow. Suddenly, alarms started going off on the console in front of him. He was being shot at, but how? He increased his speed to avoid the lasers and when he was finally facing the strange ship he saw it to be firing rapidly at him from six cannons, which must have been hidden from sight _and_ from sensors.

He spun and rolled the ship, pulling up and diving, banking to the left and to the right, just to avoid getting hit by the barrage of laser fire. He managed to squeeze off a few shots when the assailant's ship flashed past his view port, but couldn't see if any of them hit the target. The Sith's ship was surprising in every way. It _could_ out-manoeuvre the Delta-7 _and_ out-gun it. He would need something very special to come out of this battle alive.

Suddenly there was an explosion on the side of his ship and the controls froze- everything was shutting down and the ship came to a stand still. The larger, faster, more powerful ship pulled up in front of him and the comm light started flashing. The comms and life support systems were wired to an emergency power source, set behind the pilot's seat which could only be turned off by destroying the whole ship.

He pressed the comm switch but nothing happened.

"Hello?"

"Revenge shall be ours!"

"Wha-?"

The comm channel closed and there was silence again. Then there was a bright flash and then, nothing.

The _Scimitar_ turned and headed back to the cruiser to finish the errand Maul's Master had sent him on.

**A/N – That's it finished except for a short epilogue which I hope to write soon. Hope u all enjoyed it.**


	13. Epilogue

A/N – Ok so here it is, the end of Deception…

**A/N – Ok so here it is, the end of Deception…**

Viceroy Gunray was sitting in his elaborate office on Bestine, waiting for confirmation of a very important delivery. His computer console flashed up a message- he opened it and read;

"_Delivery successful, cargo in storage. – Bestine Customs Office."_

He pressed the intercom on his desk and called in his aide.

"Go to the space port and bring the delivery to the estate. Put it in bunker 134."

"Yes, Viceroy."

Just as she left the room, the comm light flashed. He pressed it and a foot tall Sith Lord appeared on the desk.

"Viceroy, I trust the package arrived safely?" The holo of Darth Sidious asked.

"Yes, My Lord, I have just received confirmation."

"I think you will find the akk dog very useful against the prying eyes of the Jedi."

"Thank you, Lord Sidious."

The Viceroy gave a bow and the hologram vanished.

* * *

Back in the dark depths of Coruscant, which saw little or no sunlight, Darth Sidious shut off the holo projector and out of the shadows stepped Darth Maul.

"I hope you had no trouble with the Neimoidians."

"There was a slight 'pest control' problem, but it was cleared up quickly."

"Yes, I heard about a young Jedi going missing."

* * *

"No one has seen Inhered, or his ship, in two weeks," Mace commented to the rest of the Council.

"The Neimoidians deny seeing him after he left their ship," added Master Mundi.

"And discovered nothing, Master Koth did, in the north."

"These events are very disturbing. We should have sensed it if something happened to Inhered," Master Gallia concluded.

**THE END**

**A/N – That's it finished now, the first fanfic I started is now finished!**


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